Our tropical garden

It's true that French Guiana is hot and humid pretty much all year around. However, this is a great advantage for plants and my backyard has become as fun as a playground. I work out there almost every day and have put a lot of effort into collecting some nice plant varieties. Let's take a look at how things are coming... (Click on photos to enlarge.)

 Try to guess what this is... it is the flower of a tropical fruit...

...that looks like this when it's almost ready to pick.

Did you say passion fruit?! I've never had the chance to be able to eat passion fruit grown in my own back yard, so it's a real treat! The next plant is an all time tropical classic. No explanations needed...

Jack found me pruning amongst the leaves and took a photo.

This is my favorite flower in my garden, a real firework. It's a variety of heliconia (the same family as the bird of paradise.)

I don't know the name of these curious red flowers but the hummingbirds love them. They attract lots of hummingbirds every day.

We've got many different varieties of hibiscus here, but this is one of my favorites.

These pompoms belong to my Calliendra. It will eventually grow into a tree.

These are orange ixora. They're very popular and extremely easy to grow here in French Guiana.

The last photo is a flamboyant tree. I've cheated, though, because I don't have one in my backyard. Jack took this photo on the parking lot of a hardware store.

Next week, Jack and I are leaving for the Martinique (Caribbean island) for vacation. The next post won't be until the end of February...